The rationale is to allow a glimpse into the reception, mediation and appropriation of classical literature in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century English drama. This archive offers diplomatic, semidiplomatic and modernised editions.
The archive presents the diplomatic transcriptions of the printed editions that are likely to have been accessed for translation and/or rewriting and, more generally, consultation by the authors collected in the database.
Diplomatic editions of more than one witness have been supplied when there are substantial variants between the witnesses of a text. The criteria adopted in such cases are described in the witness description section of each work. Modernised editions will allow the reader an easier approach to the texts, while preserving the possibility of moving back and forth between different editions and intertexts. Since the purpose of a diplomatic edition is to produce a transcription which is as faithful to the original as possible (and we provide them in pdf to ensure this), all spelling choices including mistakes, anomalous spaces, and special symbols have been preserved. Catchwords, page numbers, and running headers have also been preserved. However, the following alterations have been introduced. Instead of reproducing an illustration or a decorative element, we have indicated these features by {illustration} and {ornament}, respectively. Ornate initials are written in the same character sise as the rest of the text, but are distanced from the rest of the text by blanks, also considering the indent of the lines which they occupy in the original. Three asterisks (***) signal a lacuna; one asterisk (*) signals a missing character. In case of hardly legible characters, the letters have been transcribed in bold and as superscript. In case of completely illegible characters, each character is signalled by a slash. Handwritten notes are placed between two maniculae. Handwritten underlining is simply signalled by underlining the characters. Page numbers and signatures as well as a recto or a verso indications are always reproduced even when they are missing in the original: such insertions are signalled by angle brackets. Angle brackets are not used for added line numbers. Blackletter is rendered as bold type.
The purpose of our semidiplomatic editions is to enable users to carry out orthographic and lexical searches. Any element which hinders such operations has been deleted. Thus, whereas the spelling of the diplomatic edition has been preserved, ornate initials have been joined to the rest of the word and we have omitted all running headers, catchwords, page numbers and signatures, line numbers, anomalous spaces, markers of illustrations and ornaments, and handwritten notes. Words have not been hyphenated; authorial notes appear as pop-ups. Blatant printing mistakes, illegible characters, and lacunae have been corrected.
A few general criteria for the modernisation:
English:
- special symbols and superscript signs (& > and; “ſ” > s; ß > ss; yor > your; Matie > Majesty), as well as complex graphemes (æ > ae; œ > oe).
- i/j and u/v (obiect > object; vnkind > unkind; selues> selves); vv > w (VVar> War).
- murther > murder; receiueinge > receiving; naturall > natural; lordshippe > lordship; mankynde > mankind); obsolete forms including the following have been maintained: shalt, doth, hath, declareth, taketh, oughtst, shoon, altogethers, narrowlier, understanded.
- capital letter after period, names and personifications.
- abbreviations: hon.ble > honourable.
- Roman type for personal and place names.
- inverted commas for direct speech: “….”; single inverted commas within double inverted commas: “… ‘…’…”: e.g.: “thus spoke the man. Come with me” > “thus spoke the man: ‘Come with me’”; “Come with me (said the man), I will help you” > “‘Come with me’, said the man, ‘I will help you’”;
- question marks may have an exclamative function (? > !).
- more in general, albeit dependent on the hands of compositors as well as on the instability of early modern norms, dealing with punctuation may present a variety of possibilities.
- punctuation: while trying to preserve the original punctuation as much as possible, it has generally been modernised according to modern practices whenever it obscured the thought.
Latin:
- Digraphs have been separated (e.g. æ > ae; œ > oe); j>i (e.g. ijs > iis).
- The ‘u’/‘v’ alternance (both uppercase and lowercase) has been modernised (e.g. uiuit > vivit; Uideor > Videor; Vbi > Ubi).
- Assimilations have been corrected (e.g. affecit > adfecit; iusticia > iustitia; quanquam > quamquam).
- All diacritics have been omitted (e.g. modò > modo; quísquam > quisquam; vestrûm i.e. vestrorum > vestrum). When a diacritic represents a nasal sound, this has been spelt out (e.g. omniū > omnium).
- Dieresis placed over false diphthongs has been eliminated: oë > oe.
- Early modern spellings have been modernised (e.g. juridicus > iuridicus; quum > cum, since it is a false archaism), but forms such as a) ‘volt’ instead of ‘vult’ (which can already be found in Cicero); b) ‘-is’ as the ending of the plural accusative of the third declension (more frequently ‘-es’); c) ‘-os’ instead of ‘-us’ as the ending of singular masculine proper nouns (even when the name is not Greek) are retained, since they reflect a stylistic intention and/or can indirectly reprise a quotation of an older author. In the case of proper names showing various spellings (e.g. Alcidamus, gen. Alcidami, instead of Alcidamas, gen. Alcidamantis), such forms are retained if ancient, medieval, or Neo-Latin attestations are extant. Each case has been verified on a one-by-one basis also with regard to early modern proper names coming from another language: for instance, Grimod, Grimoauld(us), or Grimauld have not been modernised as Grimaud.
- Ethnonyms have been capitalised (e.g. latinus > Latinus).